More Vatican / Israel Unpleasantness

More on the recent unpleasantness between the Vatican and Israel:

• Liz has several updates and links to opinion pieces dealing with the Vatican / Israel dispute;
• Arutz Sheva reports that at least one MK is interpreting the Holy See's recent comments as a return to pre-Vatican II attitudes to Judaism. For what it's worth, I think that this is an extreme, and probably incorrect view, but it is clear to me that there is at present a struggle within the Vatican between those curial prelates who are hostile to Israel and those who are not.
• Ynetnews argues that the dispute is fuelled by "traditional Christian Antisemitism"; Yaakov Lappin omits to mention however, that the Catholic Church explicitly rejected the theology of Jewish deicide by Vatican II's decree on Other Religions. Lappin's basis for asserting that the Holy See's attitude to Israel has its foundation in theology rather than politics is thin, to say the least.

I do not believe that His Holiness is himself an antisemite. I suspect that the Holy See's approach is the result of a combination of residual Vatican anti-semitism (on the part of some curial prelates) and "diplomatic fudging" vis-a-vis anti-Israel terror. By "diplomatic fudging" I mean the sort of fudging that says the US can blow the living shit out of Islamists anywhere and everywhere, but when Israel puts a missile through Yassin's wheelchair, President Bush or the Secretary of State will "urge restraint" and voice their disapproval of "targeted assassinations". The Vatican's approach is somewhat analagous to that - the sort of nonsense that most governments regularly direct at Israel - "of course suicide bombings are bad, but we have to consider the 'legitimate aspirations' of the 'Palestinian people' to create a Terrorist Wonderstate and Genocidal Pyrotechnician's Paradise in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza".

It's amoral nonsense of course. But it is of a different order to "disinvestment". One can only hope that Israel's reaction will lead to the Vatican adopting greater moral clarity on Israel-related issues.

The irony is that diplomatic fudging by the Holy See in the perceived interests of Arab Christians ultimately strengthens the hand of the Islamist fundamentalists of HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the "secular Arab Nationalists" of al-fateh, none of whom have the interests of the Christian community at heart; indeed, many Arab Christians legitimately fear Islamists much more than the much maligned Zionists.

But anti-Israeli activism's siren song remains fascinating for idiots the world over, and the Vatican beaurocracy is no exception.